October 2022 Featured Car

SHELBY COBRA 427 SUPER SNAKE

One of the most iconic American cars of all time, the Shelby Cobra, came to be in 1962 when Carroll Shelby combined Ford-made V-8 engines with British-designed AC Ace bodies. Although the Ace was fairly old and close to discontinuation in 1962, its lightweight structure helped Shelby create one of the greatest American sports cars. Built until 1968 in various road-legal and race-spec configurations, the Cobra reached its performance peak when the Super Snake was launched in 1966. Called the "Cobra to end all Cobras," the Super Snake is the rarest of the bunch, and it still holds the title for the most expensive American car sold at auction.

The Super Snake used the same 7.0-liter V-8 engine as the Cobra 427, but Carroll changes some of the internals and added a pair of superchargers. This increased output to a whopping 800 horsepower, an insane figure given that the car tipped the scales at only 2,550 pounds. This power-to-weight ratio is greater than that of a Bugatti Veyron, which has 1,184 horsepower.

The transmission was a three-speed automatic that sent all that oomph to the rear wheels quick enough to push the Super Snake from 0 to 60 mph in a little over three seconds. Top speed was never unveiled, but it’s believed that the Super Snake could hit close to 200 mph.

In 1967, Bill Cosby bought a Shelby Cobra Super Snake CSX3303 from his friend and former race car driver, Carroll Shelby. The CSX3303 was one of two Super Snakes built, which is a modified 1965 Cobra Competition roadster retained by Shelby American as a PR car and then modified with the addition of two superchargers and a Ford C-6 automatic gearbox. Of the two cars built, one was retained by Shelby and the other was sold to Cosby. The album title, 200 M.P.H., refers to the car’s top speed, which unnerved Cosby so much that he only drove it once before returning it. Shelby American sold it to S and C Motors in San Francisco, who then sold it to their customer, Tony Maxey. Maxey destroyed himself and CSX3303 by driving off of a cliff and into the Pacific Ocean.

The only remaining Super Snake was auctioned off in January 2007 at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction. The roadster changed hands for $5.5 million, becoming the most expensive American car ever sold at a public auction.